Recollect
by fuzzy-faerie
Summary: Max has been dead for a good two years now. The Flock's more broken apart than ever without her. But what happens when Itex sends an upgraded Winged-Kid to attack them? And why does she look so much like Max?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own Maximum Ride. Or at least all the books. They're kinda worn out (from violent flipping of pages) but they're MINE. *maniacal laugh***

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**ITEX Headquarters, Kalahari Desert**

"The machine has been completed. Test run is a success." A bespectacled man in a white coat informed the figure on screen.

"Finally. Test subject? Bring it forward, Mr. Tretin," he said, but it was impossible to tell if he was angry or pleased. His voice was computerized by the microphone, changing it into a series of monotone sounds.

Mr. Tretin walked briskly towards a glass chamber in a corner. Inside sat a middle-aged woman who had a blank look on her face. Mr Tretin led her out and she followed, seemingly unaware of her surroundings.

"This is captured target 10673. Captured two weeks and three days ago in Arizona. A witness at the scene was immediately eliminated, "he informed the Chairman.

"Process?" the figure asked, oblivious to the man's increasing uneasiness.

" Its memories have all been erased su-successfully. It does not respond to any stimuli. F-false memories have not been planted into it as you have not ordered us to," the man scrambled to tell him. Any mistakes would cost him more than his life.

"Good." The figure on screen rested his chin on his hands. " I have use for her. She would be able to help us to capture our main target," he said and turned away from the screen.

"Send her to my office. I will do this myself," he told the nervous scientist.

"Y-yes," he stuttered and closed the video-connection. He sucked in a deep breath and tried to gather himself. Talking to the Chairman for more than a minute made him extremely anxious. Colleagues of his have been killed on the spot for saying something that did not please the Chairman less than thirty seconds into the video-call.

The test-subject looked at him blankly.

"Oh, shut-up," he glared at her and pushed her back into the glass chamber. Sometimes he wished he was a target rather than an employee.

* * *

**The Flock's current Headquarters, Not Quite Sure Where.**

"Fire in the hole!" Gazzy yelled and before I could shield myself, purple mush exploded into my face.

Dripping with purple goo, I glared at that little twerp. He laughed and high-fived Iggy.

"If you do that one more time, I swear I'm gonna –" I threatened.

"I'm gonna kiss Gazzy's butt." I heard myself say. Gazzy and his stupid voice tricks. Honestly, I've been considering leashing up that little kid lately.

Scowling, I tried to wring the sticky stuff out of my hair. It stuck like glue. Like I looked horrible enough already. My whole body was covered in scabs and scars from the many previous fights with the Erasers and not to mention my torn-up clothes.

I sat down on a goo-covered rock, rubbed my temples and I watched the chaos before me.

Nudge was in distress, trying hard to wipe off the goo from her clothes. Fang was surprisingly goo-free and leaning against a tree, calmly surveying the now-purple mud. Gazzy and Iggy were huddled together near a bush, no doubt discussing their next big felony. Under one of the trees, Angel was patiently combing out the goo from Total's fur, nodding agreeably to Total's grumbles.

"My fur is ruined. How am I ever to win my snowy mistress' heart? That gorgeous silken fair, that delicate, velvet paws will never be mine!" Total whined.

I immediately felt enormous sympathy for Total. He was such an unfortunate dog, unable to win his true love's heart; his life is so messed-up. Poor, poor Total.

**Not.**

Let's review the reasons why, shall we?

He wasn't the one who had to decide to leave dear Dr. Martinez and Ella for their own safety sakes.

He wasn't the one had been flying around for two weeks straight with no idea where she was; the last meeting with the School had messed up all her senses of direction.

Lastly, he wasn't the one who had to carry that dead-weight of a dog around. I mean, he has wings for goodness sake, fly already!

"Max, you know Total can't fly yet." Angel stopped combing Total's hair and looked at me earnestly with her large, blue eyes.

I sighed and dragged my fingers through my hair.

"Angel, sweetie, you got to stop listening to other people's thoughts. It's not that polite to go around poking into other's minds," I explained.

Angel looked at me and nodded, but she didn't look convinced. Huh.

"Max! Max! Look! This is so awesome!"

I looked up and saw Nudge bouncing towards me, her eyes bright with excitement. Whoopee. My gut was telling me this was one of those crazy spontaneous mutations…

Nudge jerked to a standstill in front of the rock I was sitting on and raised her palm at me.

"What? Nice fingernails?" I tried, bewildered.

Nudge stuck her tongue out at me and said," Look at my hand!"

I glanced at her hand, not quite understanding what she was trying to get at. Maybe she had gone crazy and was experiencing strange hallucinations and voices in her head telling her she had superpowers or something.

Oh, hang on, that's me.

Surprisingly, Nudge's hand started to sort of glimmer. Like when you shake your hand really fast. Except now, her hand was vibrating so fast it kind of looked like one huge mass blob of mocha.

"Okaay, so you can vibrate your hand at superfast speeds," I concluded.

Nudge grinned brightly, oblivious to my sarcasm.

"Oh man! I wanna try!" Gazzy piped in, and scrunched up his face, tensing up his fist. It vibrated a little.

"Me too!" Iggy yelled, and joined him. Boy, do they look like they have digestion problems.

"But can you do this?" Nudge flashed an excited smile at them. She placed her still vibrating hand on the rock. I heard a hissing sound and the edges around Nudge's hand started glowing – can u believe it?! – hot red. Her hand sunk through the thick layer of purple goo and I swear I saw the stuff evaporate. A little stream of smoke started to rise up from the rock.

I let out a low whistle, in spite of myself. Nudge lifted up her hand and on the rock I saw a dark print of her palm, still fizzling out smoke.

Disbelievingly, I lightly traced the edges of the imprint. It was already cold.

"Nudge, don't ever touch me again. Swear?" Gazzy said, eyes wide, but he was grinning cheekily.

Iggy tapped his foot impatiently.

"Nudge just burnt a dent in a rock with her hand, Iggy."

Iggy hmphed. Obviously, I just burst his bubble.

And once again, my gut was right. I was considering maybe selling my gut away for some money. Since it was always right, maybe it could become a fortune-teller or something.

Yeah, right. I always knew there was something wrong with my brain.

"Max…?" Angel's voice snapped me back to reality.

"Yeah?"

"I think some Erasers are coming. I've been picking up some distant thoughts about "eliminating the targets" for a few minutes now." Angel said matter-of-factly.

Okaay.

I whistled loudly for the Flock to gather round.

"It's time to move again guys!" I announced.

"Hurry up Max…" Angel whispered loudly, panic starting to creep into her voice.

I unfurled my wings and tried to shake out the annoying remains of the goo.

"Up and away!" I shouted and leapt up. The rest shot up into the sky, Angel carrying Total; Fang hovered above a few storeys up, waiting for me.

But as it seems, the gods just don't like me. I barely got three feet off the ground.

I swore and cursed Gazzy's stupid goo-bomb. The goo stuck my feathers together, preventing any flight whatsoever.

Great.

Especially since now, I could see a pack of rabid wolves bounding towards me.

I swore and tried to rub it off my feathers. All that changed was that now, I had sticky hands.

Damn you, Gazzy.

I glanced behind me and saw the snarling idiots a mere twenty yards away from me.

I tugged at my feathers again.

Ten yards now.

Finally realising my difficulties – took them long enough too – the Flock dived down towards me.

Fang landed beside me first, his body tense for battle.

No yards left.

A claw lunged for my head and I reflexively ducked down, swinging my leg at its shin. My foot landed heroically with a thump. The Eraser did not even flinch.

Hey folks! Presenting, the all-new, bigger, better, faster, stronger…Erasers 2.0! They can help push your trolley in Wal-mart and as a plus, they can help you hunt down mutant bird-kids!

The last thing I could remember clearly was Fang trying to land a punch on one of their ugly faces. Then one of them probably sneaked up behind me and head butted my back at full-force.

I think I heard Nudge gasp. Nevertheless, I could not be sure, because my ears were ringing from the pain. I felt my knees go weak.

I think I saw Fang lurching protectively in front of me and Iggy chopping one of them on the neck and Gazzy throwing what I think was a bomb and Nudge back to back with Angel fighting off some Erasers but then it all started to mix up like watercolours and Fang merged with an Eraser into one big, black blob and then black stuff started to creep in from the edges of my vision.

Chances are I probably collapsed in a pathetic heap on the ground.

* * *

Whee. First fanfic. I'm still learning, so be nice, 'kay?

Flames will be used to bake brownies.

Cheers.


	2. Chapter 2

**THANK YOU ****THANK YOU**** THANK YOU**** THANK YOU**** THANK YOU**** THANK YOU**** THANK YOU**** THANK YOU**** THANK YOU**** THANK YOU**** THANK YOU**** THANK YOU ALL for the reviews.**

**Frankly, i wasn't expecting more than two.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride. But I do want to own Wolverine. He kicks butt! XD**

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Hey there. I'm Max.

Want to know more about me?

I have escaped from a crazy prison-school, flown in the sky with wings, swam underwater without any gear, tried to cut open my arm with a seashell and argued with a voice in my head

Want to know something else?

I'M STUCK IN A FRIGGIN FISH TANK!

Bet ya didn't see that coming, huh.

Not to mention the fact that I have metal tubes and stuff stuck all over me.

If you still can't picture this, try thinking of that X-Men movie Wolverine. Except change the crazy mutant wolf-dude to a even crazier mutant bird-kid and add some clothes in.

Thank god for that. Itex might be evil enough to kidnap babies and graft wings onto them but they can't take the sight of a naked girl.

Go figure.

"_Max_."

Dang. It's that stupid voice in my head again. Hopefully that humming noise would drown it out.

"_What do you want? And I'd be surprised if you don't know why I'm stuck in a fish tank with a gas mask and a blindfold over my face_," I snapped back.

"_Relax, Max. No one's going to hurt you._"

Like that will ever happen. I snorted and almost choked.

Right. Gotta remember that I'm in a LIQUID-filled tank.

"_Max, you have to remember to stay calm_," The Voice reminded me.

"Wha-?" I couldn't even send a snappy retort back before something sharp stabbed me in the neck. My back arched reflexively and I felt similar stabs on my arms and legs. Followed by many more. Frankly, I felt like a human pincushion right now.

"Commence sequence," Some faraway metallic voice said.

Then there was a loud BEEP and the whole tank started to shake vigorously. The faint humming now sounded like a herd of elephants on a rampage. No, make that fifty herds of elephants.

BEEP

There it goes again. I can't believe I still can consciously think even when there are like, what, eighty things stuck int----

There was a sound of thunder and I screamed.

I tried to scream but the gas mask was fastened on tight.

It's like someone just ran a metal flagpole up my spine…

The thunder struck again.

Despite the blindfold, everything started swirling, a whirlpool of white flashes and black ink…

I screamed.

That was all I could remember doing.

* * *

Fang jerked up from his sleep, sweating. His eyes flickered anxiously around for the Flock.

Nudge was lying on a tree branch to his left, her broken arm dangling fragilely from the branch. Angel was curled up in a hollow of the tree with Total. Gazzy was sitting back-to-back against Iggy, who was resting his broken hand on his stomach. Gazzy stirred restlessly and murmured incomprehensible words.

Fang sighed softly.

Gazzy had blamed himself for Max's kidnapping. It wasn't his fault. How was he supposed to know…

Fang started scraping the tree bark with his fingernail. It was a nasty habit he had developed a day after Max had gone. It made his fingers bleed, but he didn't really care. It had been four days since Max was taken.

He felt a deep pang in his heart. Why couldn't he have fought back those Erasers? Sure, they were an improved version, but still…

When he saw that Max could not take off, he had still stayed in the air. If he had gone sooner, this wouldn't have happened. He thought Max could handle it. Then he heard Angel gasp and he had looked a few yards in front of Max.

Erasers. Thirty of them. And they seemed to be moving faster than the last pack they had fought.

He folded his wings and dived straight down towards Max.

One of the larger Erasers lunged at Max and he landed in front of her, trying to shield her. He slashed at her and she dodged and tried to trip him. It didn't work.

He punched it in the face and he heard it crack. Then it whacked him on his shoulder and he hurtled towards a tree. His back hit it and the tree shuddered. He tried to get up but his knees gave way.

He looked up and saw an Eraser bounding towards me. Ignoring the pain, he shook out his wings and tried to fly up.

He got seven metres up into the air and he saw the whole picture.

There were ten helicopter-looking things about two miles away. They were sleeker and longer than a helicopter and looked a lot more fast.

He heard Nudge scream. He wildly looked around for her. Nudge was trying to fight off some of them but she was also pointing at Max.

And behind Max there was a humanized Eraser sprinting towards her with a metal bat. He plummeted down, hoping he would make it in time.

He didn't.

The chunk of solid metal smashed into Max's spine with a dull thump.

He landed beside her and growled. The Eraser punched him in the chest and he fell to the ground.

Max did the same thing.

He had quickly lost consciousness, but not before he had seen the Erasers leaping into the helicopter-things, one of them carrying a limp body.

In the end, Max was gone.

And there was nothing he could do about it.

He tugged at his hair and groaned angrily.

A bitter tear splashed on the tree branch.

"Fang?"

He heard Angel whimper, desperate and frightened. He gathered himself, taking in a gulp of air.

Then he crawled over to her branch and gently lifted the snoring Total out of her lap.

Total grunted and rolled over, muttering something about wings and penguins.

"I had a nightmare," Angel whimpered.

Fang almost smiled. Underneath all the crazy powers and tough exterior, Angel was really just a kid. But a really scary kid sometimes.

He awkwardly put his arm around her. She pushed her head into his chest and her shoulders started to shake.

"I saw Max dying," she sobbed.

"It's okay. It's not real," Fang tried to comfort her.

Angel looked up at him with wide, teary eyes.

"But it was," she said.

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Whee. Second chapter up!

R & R pls!

Cheers.


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry for the short chapter! I'll be leaving for Scotland soon and I don't want to leave you wonderful guys with nothing for more than two weeks! XD**

**This was all I managed to type in... Again, sry! =(**

**And thanks for all the reviews! XD I'd be nothing without you.. though I do want more reviews... *sigh* lols.**

**To Toxic Rain42: Yes, sadly, I did. But what's Maximum Ride without giving Angel a new power in every new story? =)**

**To SeekDreamsAndFindHope: Sry, Ignore this if you dun't want to read my pointless question. But i'm curious. Do you start all of your reviews with "Wow. Um. Er. Wow" ? Sry if you think I'm being rude, but i saw one of your other reviews with the same sentence. And thanks for the review anyway! XD**

**Disclaimer: Apparently I don't own Maximum Ride. Don't ask me why, ask that weird guy over there who says he's James Patterson.**

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"Are you sure? Are you extremely, totally, really, really, confirmatably sure?" Nudge squeaked.

"Confirmatably isn't a word," Total muttered.

"I don't know… It was a dream, yet not quite a dream… It felt real," Angel sniffed.

Iggy felt somewhat inferior. Angel kept getting powers after powers but he just stayed helplessly blind. Sure, he got some powers, but when he compared hers to his, his was like a grenade to a battleship. Like, which is better, being able to sense colours or mind reading and precognition? You don't even need to ask. It was a fact.

"In a dreamlike way," Angel added after a pause.

"_And the line between reality and dreams blurs_," Iggy whispered ominously.

"Stop that, Iggy. This isn't the time," Gazzy muttered.

Iggy frowned, concerned about his best pal. Ever since Max was taken, Gazzy just wasn't the same anymore. He didn't laugh that much and that mischievous tone in his voice were gone. Heck, he didn't even touch any bombs, not even the blue-prints!

"Are you sure you didn't see anything else?" Fang asked anxiously.

"I told you four times already. I was dreaming about Total flying beside me with large black wings," Angel recounted. Total grunted in approval.

"Then suddenly I saw Max floating in a green tank with a hospital-like dress on. I could hear people muttering stuff in the background but the scene changed too quickly for me to catch it. Then it switched to this close-up of a heart-monitor. The heart rate was similar to ours, so I thought it was probably Max's. Then there was this loud beep and Max's heart rate started going faster and faster and faster…"

Angel stopped abruptly and gave a despairing sound.

"Go on," Iggy urged.

"Then it just…stopped," Angel whispered hoarsely.

It was silent except for Angel's choked sobs. Iggy suddenly felt cold.

"I'm going for a walk," Iggy heard Gazzy mutter.

There was a 'whoosh' of wings and the rustle of leaves.

Immediately, the place felt considerably emptier.

"It's alright Iggy. He'll be back. You'll see," Fang said, but Iggy could tell he was more concerned about Max.

"No, I can't," Iggy said bitterly and jumped down from the branch.

"Iggy, "Nudge called.

Iggy ignored her and continued walking.

A hand grabbed his shoulder. It was Fang. He could tell from the feel and the colour.

"I know it's hard but Max's absence shouldn't break us all up like that," Fang said gently. "I know you know it hit me harder than everyone else."

Iggy's shoulders slumped.

"Sorry," he mumbled. "But Gazzy…?"

"He just has to think it over. C'mon, Angel needs company. It isn't every day you dream of one of your best friends dying," Fang tried to laugh but it came out more like a strangled grunt.

Iggy smiled weakly at Fang's attempt to cheer him up. Sadly, it only managed to remind him of Max.

* * *

Once again, i'll apologise for this pathetic chapter. =(

Next chapter would probably be about Max... =)

I'll try to make it longer.. bah, I'm such a terrible writer...

R & R pls!! XD

Cheers.


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